Madison County police, fire radio system nearly all digital; older scanners won'r work.

Madison County is in the process of switching from an analog signal for emergency services to digital signals in order to improve quality of communications.

Just like what happened with television a few years ago, the signal is going digital -- only this time is there is no digital converter box for sale, said Drew Barok, manager of the Radio Shack in Sangertown Mall.

Joseph DeFrancisco, county emergency preparedness coordinator, said Madison County is now in the final stages of the conversion to a "P25 Trunked Radio System."

In the past, fire departments, police and other first responders would use their own frequencies for communication. Going forward, everyone will be sharing a digital frequency.

"We are now entering a world where radios are computers," DeFrancisco said.

With the new digital system, some channels, especially car-to-car communications, will be encrypted for private chatter -- even more than in the past, DeFrancisco said.

DeFrancisco is unsure when the complete digital turnover would be complete, but said it will be before the end of the year.

Both he and Oneida City Police Chief David Meeker noted that police agencies in the county are now starting to use the new radios that work on the system.

This $19 million project began more than two years ago. The federal government mandated it be in place by 2013, but provided no funding.

The county levied taxes on cellphones and landlines, plus received some grants to help pay for the project. Officials say the county is still tallying expenses, and the final expense is unknown.

"I think we are a bit under budget," said Mark Scimone, county administrative assistant.

The project includes upgrades to the software at the 911 Center as well as radios used by first responders. In 2005, the 911 center underwent a $3 million equipment upgrade in a separate project.

The analog system, more than 30 years old, had three radio towers and several dead zones, especially in areas south of State Route 20.

Fire departments will start the changeover later this month, and within two to three months, all fire trucks will have new mobile radios, DeFrancisco said.

For a while, both analog and digital systems will run simultaneously; when everyone is comfortable with the new system, the analog system will be shut off for good.

In the meantime, people with analog scanners will be hearing less and less communication, as more departments switch to the new system.

The county contracted Motorola and Mid-State Communications for system equipment, said DeFrancisco.

When the project began two years ago, Paul Hartnett, county Public Safety Communication Center director, said the county would be able to lease space on the nine new towers to Internet and cell phone companies to improve cellphone overage and generate revenue for the county, a possibility "which we are absolutely exploring," said Scimone on Wednesday.

Hartnett said Madison County is part of a consortium with Onondaga, Cortland, Cayuga and Oswego counties to link their communication systems to create a master system. Onondaga County's upgrade has been up and running for about one year, Cortland County is still in the early stages of development, but can begin narrow-banding its signal so they do meet federal requirements. Cayuga County will make a complete switchover to the new system sometime around Thanksgiving and Oswego County will make the switch within a month and a half.